Awkward school calendar

My DD (dear daughter) will be starting 1st grade in a couple weeks in a completely new school district and I’ve just reviewed her upcoming school calendar. As background, we just moved to the area, from a small private school abroad (school day was 8:20-4:00, had 3 weeks at Xmas, Easter, etc, but offered camps during those long breaks)

Omg. As a working mom, I’m trying to be as open minded as possible, but I’m struggling to understand the sporadic half days, full days off all throughout the school year. For example, we only get 3 school days off for spring break, but the last week of Jan, we have 2 half days Tue & Wed, and Thursday off. I understand the importance of teacher work days, but I’m frustrated that they all fall mid week (versus a Mon/Fri), so it’s very limiting.

My question- it is typical for parents to pull their kids from school a few days during weeks, like the one in January I described above, to travel/visit family, make the most of the time I have to take off anyway? Like I said we just moved back to the States and would love to reconnect with family & friends over the course of the year and not force it all in over the summer holidays.

Trying to not to complain here, just curious about how it’s done these days!

Comments (46)

Yes many people especially during Elementary years go on vacation whenever. It is not until at the very least middle or even until high school that people won't plan a trip due to school.

High school here the big deal is extra curricular even more than school LOL. Competition is fierce to make anything band, sports and so on any of the teams! For example if you make the basketball team you can't go for too long around Christmas as they do tournaments during the break, my son is on the wrestling team and they wrestle for Varsity spots during Thanksgiving week so we never travel during that week. Band and football is already back to practicing so you can't travel at the end of summer which stinks for them b/c it is cheaper during the August part for many beach places it seems.

My school district is anti-half day. They don't think it is fair to working parents. They also will not do a half weather day either. They will either cancel the whole day or not. There was once an ice storm that the news was saying was coming in the afternoon so what the district did was say if you want to get your kids it would be excused but they were not closing. I thought this was a great compromise!

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I would definitely pull my young kids for vacations, but we have a difficult time finding longer periods of time to vacation with my older kids' commitments and our work schedules. My jr high/high schoolers try to not miss any school time since it is so hard to make up the work, and they have varsity sports commitments that can't be missed or "made up."

My kids miss a lot of school for their jr high/high school extracurriculars. I'm not sure when/how this became the norm?

School funding is often tied to attendance. If they put the half days in Mondays and Fridays, many people would just take their kids out for a long weekend and then funding would be affected. Also, often half days are for conferences and schools need parents to be in town to attend the conferences.

Many parents do take their children out for vacation. Just be aware that teachers cannot make up much of the learning. I have had students miss the one week unit in decimals or the whole day engineering project. Some students miss multiple tests in one week and then struggle to make them up.

That’s a really bizarre schedule. I’m a teacher and I’ve worked in 3 different districts. All of them had a week for Spring Break and teacher workdays always fell adjacent to weekends or holidays. I’d be annoyed as a parent too with a schedule like you’re describing.

As far as pulling kids for trips, I’m a secondary teacher (middle and high school) and I always have a few kids every year that miss a chunk of time due to trips. Either for leisure or family emergency. I have a lot of students that miss a day or two around holiday breaks and weekends, or randomly throughout the year due to extracurricular activities. There’s a trade off for sure when it comes to assignments and grades. I think that experiences can be worth it, school and grades are not always the most important things. I just make sure the families have realistic expectations as to what their child will be missing and how it might affect their grades. It’s easier if you don’t do it close to the end of a quarter, otherwise the poor kids have to cram all the makeup work in a short period of time.

In our school district, those crazy half-days in the winter are for the High School students to take exams. It took me years to figure that out! When our kids were younger we pulled our kids out for a day that week and went skiing. But now, my daughter is old enough to start having exams.

Our kids do get a full week at spring break, though, and at least a week at Christmas/New Years.

I'm a professor though, so my spring break does not line up with their spring break

Vacations are frawned on here. Some still do but from 6th grade up if you miss more than 3 days in a quarter without an excuse (and vacations are specifically called out as not excused) it’s an automatic fail. Attendance is very important and they really stress starting in kindergarten because of the strict requirements for middle and high school but we also have week after Christmas off, plus a week in February and a week in April off, so from districts point of view plenty of time for family vacations. Not ours but I have had friends in other towns only get 2-3 days in April after a snowy winter.

We are moving from monthly half days on Wednesday to Friday’s. It’s not every month. Half days are usually tied to a teacher (training or meetings) We also have two teacher professional days. It used to be a lot worse but the changes have really been about constancy for the kids. Even the move from Wednesday to Friday half days. Makes the week flow better but there is some concern cause those early releases were also an opportunity for teachers to offer help. While kids got out at 12:30 they were still contracted to be there until 3 and we are wondering if anything is going to change with teacher dismissal time on half days.

My kids have off the Tuesday after Labor Day this year. I am so annoyed!!! (We go back August 20th.)

In Texas, missing more than 3 days in a row for an unexcused absence (ie, vacation) gets you a letter. Missing 10 days or parts of days in a year gets you a letter and maybe a court date. This plus the fact that I can’t miss work during the academic year means we don’t take off then. Plus my oldest is to the point where missing school is harder to catch up.

We used to have one Wednesday per month as a half day/ teacher work day. It was such a pain.

That schedule does seem random. Our district used to do half days on Wednesday, but after enough parents across the district complained, they have now moved them to Fridays or they happen before a school break.

Most of our in-service days are incorporated into holidays. So instead of just a Monday off, the kids will get the Friday before off and have a four day weekend. We get a week off for spring break, a full week for Thanksgiving and usually between 2-3 weeks at Christmas.

Vacations are unexcused absences in our district. That doesn't stop people from pulling their kids out, but they are unexcused. In fact, we are pulling DS (dear son) out for a week to go to Disney this year in the fall.

That schedule does seem random. Our district used to do half days on Wednes...

Posted
08/07/2018

That schedule does seem random. Our district used to do half days on Wednesday, but after enough parents across the district complained, they have now moved them to Fridays or they happen before a school break.

Most of our in-service days are incorporated into holidays. So instead of just a Monday off, the kids will get the Friday before off and have a four day weekend. We get a week off for spring break, a full week for Thanksgiving and usually between 2-3 weeks at Christmas.

Vacations are unexcused absences in our district. That doesn't stop people from pulling their kids out, but they are unexcused. In fact, we are pulling DS out for a week to go to Disney this year in the fall.

Thank you! Your schedule is makes much more sense to me, glad I’m not delusional.

Also, a PP (previous poster) made a good point about the exam schedule. That crazy week in January happens to be the end of a term, so maybe it’s designed for the older kids.

I will probably see how the year starts, get a vibe for attendance requirements, and go from there. With only 3 days at Thanksgiving and one week at Xmas, and 3 days at Spring break, we’d like to plan something (esp off peak time) to get some skiing in, catch up with family.

Solidarity. I was putting our first graders schedule in after being in private K last year. Yikes! We 1 late start every month and a full day teacher inservice day every other month or so. A few of the typical holidays. A full week in February, a full week in April. The bus picks up at 8:10am and drops off at 3pm. I'm so glad DH (dear husband) is a SAHP (stay-at-home parent) again (this schedule and the before/after care logistics are a prime reason why).

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